Warner Center, CA

Wisteria at Warner Center, a senior living community in Woodland Hills, has officially broken ground.

Once completed, the Life Plan Community will span 17 acres at 5500 Canoga Ave.

Life Plan Communities are state-recognized continuing care retirement communities. Spieker Senior Development Partners broke ground on the six-story project in late April. All of Spieker’s California communities are Life Plan Communities.

Wisteria at Warner Center will have 486 homes, ranging from one-bedroom options to penthouses nearly 3,000 square feet in size. Resident amenities will include an indoor pool, fitness center, library, movie theater and performing arts center.

The project also has ground-floor retail and dining venues.

Wisteria at Warner Center, which is expected to open in 2025, will feature a health center next to the community with access to assisted living, memory care and long-term care in a skilled nursing center.

Troy Bourne, managing partner at Spieker Senior Development Partners, said he grew up in the Valley and was excited to bring a much-needed development to the area.

“I’ve known the Valley my whole life and it’s (senior housing) an unmet need,” Bourne said. “There are a lot of families that started their families here, raised their families here … and love life in the Valley.

“It’s a vibrant place, it’s a diverse place … and they’re not in a hurry to leave the Valley,” he added.

“Los Angeles has needed this community for so long, and we’re both excited and proud to bring the area’s first comprehensive Life Plan Community to the San Fernando Valley,” Wisteria Marketing Director Ernie Sandlin added in a statement. “The homes at Wisteria will be beautiful, but the real value to the area’s seniors is the combination of these new homes with best-in-class services, amenities, and access to higher levels of assistance and care if needed down the road. Thanks to the support of our forward-thinking community leaders, design and construction professionals, and future residents, we’ve reached a significant milestone in bringing this project to the Los Angeles market.”

Spieker Senior Development Partners, Bourne said, had been looking for a location in the Valley “for a long time.”

In order to build a community, he said the company needed a lot of space, not just a corner.

The Wisteria at Warner Center is a former Northrop Grumman site.

Beyond just meeting the necessary size requirements, Bourne said the site was desirable because it was a place where people “were already comfortable going to.”

He said that many already shop in the area and it’s close to many freeways, making it a good place for the development.

More than 500 families have already signed up for the development’s waitlist, Bourne said.

KTGY is designing the project, while W.E. O’Neil Construction is building it.

Spieker Senior Development Partners’ closest location is in Thousand Oaks. Bourne said the company is currently working on a project in Northern California, but does not have other Southern California projects slated. One of the biggest challenges with creating these communities, he said, is the amount of land needed. It can also take a really long time to develop a community. Even after finding land, he said, it can be 10 years before a project is completed.

“It’s a process, and it doesn’t happen quickly,” he said.

Rams owner Stan Kroenke has escalated his property buying spree in Woodland Hills with the $325-million purchase of an outdoor shopping center.

The Village deal, which closed last week, further signals the billionaire businessman’s intention to build a second sports-centric development like the one around SoFi Stadium in Inglewood.

His company, the Kroenke Organization, now controls about 100 acres in Warner Center that are expected by real estate industry observers to become part of a sprawling mixed-use complex that may include stores, restaurants, hotels and residences, along with a training facility for the NFL football team. It could become one of the largest new real estate developments in the region.

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The popular Village, completed in 2015, is next to the largely inactive Woodland Hills Promenade mall and an unoccupied high-rise office building, both of which Kroenke acquired last year.

Representatives of the Kroenke Organization declined to elaborate on their plans for Warner Center but said in a statement that “we will continue to operate The Village as an open-air lifestyle and retail destination.”

The seller of the Village was Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield, a Paris-based mall operator that said in April that it would unload all its U.S. properties and bet its future on Europe, where it is the largest owner of shopping centers.

The company still owns Westfield Topanga, another mall near Kroenke’s recent acquisitions. Other prominent neighbors are the Warner Center Towers office complex and a hotel, Warner Center Marriott Woodland Hills.

Los Angeles city officials are encouraging dense mixed-use development in the neighborhood that could include new housing, offices, shops, restaurants, hotel rooms and entertainment venues.

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Assembling a 100-acre parcel that would be at the center of a more urban-feeling downtown for Woodland Hills is “pretty spectacular,” said retail property broker Bryan Ley of JLL, who was not involved in the sales.

“There are not many land sites sold around Los Angeles County that are 100 acres with this kind of density and location,” he said.

In Inglewood, Kroenke controls nearly 300 acres surrounding SoFi Stadium, in what was formerly the Hollywood Park horse racing venue. When the complex is completed, it will be 3½ times the size of Disneyland and contain a performance venue, hotel, stores, restaurants, offices, homes and a lake with waterfalls.

Kroenke is a longtime real estate developer whose company owns and operates retail centers in 39 states totaling 40 million square feet, according to the Unibail statement.

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Since the Rams moved back to Los Angeles in 2016, they’ve used a temporary setup for their practice facility and team headquarters. They’ve set up shop at Cal Lutheran in Thousand Oaks, which is about an hour from SoFi Stadium, but a more permanent home could be opening in the coming years.

According to KCLU, Los Angeles City Councilman Bob Blumenfield said the Rams filed paperwork with the Woodland Hills planning department to build a facility in the area. This news comes about six months after it was reported that Rams owner Stan Kroenke bought The Village mall in Woodland Hills for $325 million.

The following letter was sent to Woodland Hills residents by Blumenfield this week, revealing the Rams’ plans to build a year-round practice facility and headquarters. The letter says the facility will be located on the old Anthem parking lot and will be “very similar to the site they have been operating for the past few years at Cal Lutheran with several large football fields with a network of temporary modular structures.”

I am very excited that the process to welcome the Los Angeles Rams year-round practice facility/headquarters to the West Valley has officially begun. Last week they filed their initial plans with the Planning Department. Right now we are helping bring our City family to the table to ensure their review gets rolling so the Rams can call Warner Center home as soon as possible.

This new project will be located on the old Anthem parking lot off Canoga and Erwin. It will be very similar to the site they have been operating for the past few years at Cal Lutheran with several large football fields with a network of temporary modular structures. And to be clear, this will be their year-round practice facility. The beautiful So-Fi Stadium will continue to be their home for games- this Warner Center site will be where they practice, train, and have offices. Unlike a stadium that is open to the public, this practice facility will have little to no traffic, noise or other negative impacts on the surrounding community.

Over the coming months, as this project moves forward, the Rams and my staff will continue to meet with community groups to share their proposal and address any issues or questions that may arise. I’m looking forward to welcoming such a storied NFL franchise to the West Valley.

Bob Blumenfeld

Twitter user @tbearde shared a rendered image of the Rams’ facility plans for Woodland Hills, which was also sent to residents along with the letter. Obviously, these are preliminary plans and not the final layout, but it does show the sort of setup the team will have.

Rams fans! Wanna sneak peak at the new training facility in Woodland Hills? Here’s a rendering. This is NOT what the final product will look like but will give you an idea of the footprint. The Rams will be moving their offices into the old Aetna building you see above fields. pic.twitter.com/oRdbZHgzWO

— TY (@tbearde) June 10, 2023

It’s unclear whether the Rams would hold their training camp at the new Woodland Hills site or if they will continue to use UC Irvine to host camp each July. The new facility should be large enough to comfortably host fans and the team, but that remains to be seen.

Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield has announced that its recently completed expansion at Westfield Topanga at Warner Center has been awarded LEED Platinum status by the U.S. Green Building Council.

“We put sustainability at the core of our business, with the goal of increasing our positive environmental, social, and economic impact in the local community and beyond through the delivery of world-class destinations,” Geoffrey Mason, executive vice president of operating management and development at Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield, said in a statement. “As Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield’s first U.S. retail development to achieve LEED Platinum certification, the Westfield Topanga expansion is setting the standard for which we will strive with all our future projects.”

To achieve LEEDertification, the Westfield Topanga expansion implemented solutions in areas including sustainable site development, water-use reduction and optimized energy performance, including on-site renewable energy and the use of green power. Other sustainability initiatives at the center include the installation of a 15,000-panel solar array in 2018 – the largest at any shopping center or retail destination at the time in California.

Topanga also employs interior and exterior LED lighting, skylight tinting, electric vehicle charging stations and chilled water coils, as well as efficient lighting and chiller-control systems.

“Westfield Topanga’s LEED certification demonstrates tremendous green building leadership,” Peter Templeton, president and chief executive officer at U.S. Green Building Council, said in a statement. “LEED was created to make the world a better place and revolutionize our buildings and communities by providing everyone with access to healthy, green and high-performing buildings. The expansion at Westfield Topanga is a prime example of how the innovative work of project teams can create local solutions that contribute to making a global difference.”

The $250-million expansion at Westfield Topanga is a combined 180,000-square-feet of indoor and outdoor space renovation of a former department store space once occupied by Sears. The new district will include Topanga Social, a chef-driven food hall; an AMC Dine-In theatre; an expanded luxury fashion collection anchored by new Hermès, Dior, and Valentino boutiques; a nearly 21,000-square-foot Arhaus store; and Pinstripes, an experiential dining and entertainment concept.

Jean-Marie Tritant, chief executive officer of Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield, appears to be following through on his 2021 comment that the Paris-based company planned to sell off its U.S. assets. Last year, Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield sold Warner Center properties the Westfield Promenade and the Village to Los Angeles Rams owner Stan Kroenke for $150 million and $325 million, respectively. The company also sold Westfield Santa Anita last August for $537.5 million to businessman Wen Shan Chang.

The question remains whether the investment going into Westfield Topanga will culminate in a sale of the property. Mason said he was unaware of any plans to sell Westfield Topanga and that any such a decision would come from the leadership of the company.

Rams owner Stan Kroenke has acquired a high-rise office building in Woodland Hills near a former shopping center he bought a few months ago, strongly signaling that the billionaire businessman wants to build a second sports-centric development like that around SoFi Stadium.

Kroenke’s two sites in the Warner Center neighborhood are expected to become part of a sprawling mixed-use complex that may include stores, restaurants, hotels and residences, along with a training facility for the Super Bowl-winning football team.

Kroenke bought the office building on Oxnard Street on Friday, the Kroenke Group confirmed. The company did not disclose how much Kroenke paid for the building and surrounding land.

But real estate sources close to the deal who spoke on condition of anonymity said he paid about $175 million for the property, last occupied by health insurer Anthem Inc. In all, Kroenke has sunk about $325 million into the neighboring properties.

The 13-story tower sits on a 25-acre site ripe for development as Los Angeles officials push to make Warner Center a more bustling urban environment where people live, work, shop and find entertainment.

The neighborhood Specific Plan adopted in 2013 promotes the construction of housing, shops and restaurants — amounting to a welcome mat for builders. And large-scale mixed-use developments are already in the works.

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Feb. 24, 2022

Although the Kroenke Group has yet to publicly acknowledge any development plans in Woodland Hills, the company is widely expected to build a scaled-down version of its SoFi sports campus in Inglewood, with team headquarters, practice facility and fields, along with commercial development unrelated to football.

When Kroenke’s vision for the SoFi Stadium complex is complete, the football arena will be surrounded by a complex 3 1/2 times the size of Disneyland containing a performance venue, hotel, stores, restaurants, offices, homes and a lake with waterfalls.

In Warner Center, Kroenke bought the former Woodland Hills Promenade shopping center for $150 million in March. The city supports development of apartments, offices, hotel and a sports and entertainment center on the site. It lies across busy Owensmouth Avenue from the former Anthem property Kroenke just bought.

The latest purchase brings Kroenke’s holdings in Woodland Hills to about 65 acres, making the combined parcels one of the biggest development sites in the area, said John M. Walker, president of the Woodland Hills Homeowners Organization. “It’s huge.”

Walker expects Kroenke’s company to come up with a new land-use design that will encompass the entire site. His homeowners group supports improvements in Warner Center but will press for any proposed development plan to address ways to control noise and traffic, such as an expanded freeway offramp and street widening.

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“It’s incredibly exciting that the Kroenke Group has acquired the old Anthem sites, expanding their future footprint in Warner Center,” L.A. City Councilman Bob Blumenfield said. “While many details need to be figured out, I am thrilled that the Rams want to build their new home in the West San Fernando Valley, and I look forward to working closely with them on this project.”

Among the prominent neighbors to Kroenke’s properties are the Warner Center Towers office complex, regional shopping center Westfield Topanga & the Village and a hotel, Warner Center Marriott Woodland Hills

Planned additions to the neighborhood include a proposed $1-billion complex on Warner Center Lane with offices, stores, restaurants, residences and a hotel that would replace a 1980s-era office park. It would have parks and pedestrian-oriented open space.